7-year-old pulls out of women's golf tourney

"She was going to play against a 65-year-old woman who was not going to want to beat her."

Matt Trowbridge

They all lived happily ever after.

The tournament.

The girl.

The father.

Their critics.

But before Madasyn Pettersen agreed to pull out of next week’s Rockford Women’s Golf Classic and instead play in next week’s Illinois Junior Girls Amateur, the Keith School second-grader had riled up nearly everyone involved.

“The Women’s City tournament is not meant for 7-year-olds,” said Pat Murawski, president of the Rockford Women’s Golf Association.

Not even one who finished second and sixth in her age group the past two years in the Calloway Junior World Golf Tournament in San Diego.

“She was going to play against a 65-year-old woman, who was not going to want to beat her and who was not going to want to lose to her,” Rockford Boylan girls golf coach Debbie VanSistine said.

At the State Junior, she will instead play against no one older than 18. Madasyn, who shoots around 50 for nine holes, won’t be a contender there.

“She’s got no chance,” said her father, Mike Pettersen. “But it’s flighted, and she’ll be paired up with similar players. Last year, eight girls shot between 103 and 110.

“It will be a great experience. She needs to be where she can get beat.”

“It’s really fun to play against older people,” Madasyn said. “They beat you, but it’s fun to see all the kinds of shots they can do and stuff.”

Madasyn might not have gotten beat at the Women’s City, held at her home course of Mauh-Nah-Tee-See Country Club. After a qualifying round, she would have been placed in one of the lower flights with similar scores to play up to three rounds of match play.

But no one wanted that, as Mike found out during lunch one day at Mauh-Nah-Tee-See.

“I got scolded at our table,” said Mike, who was talking about Madasyn possibly playing in the Women’s City. “People at the next table could hear. They said, ‘What are you doing with your 7-year-old?’

“Word got around quick. I got in four arguments about it. After the last time, I figured, ‘That’s it, I’m going to throw her in.’

“They were all worried about having to play her.”

Mike didn’t just argue. He asked for advice from Madasyn’s private coach, from Mauh-Nah-Tee-See head PGA pro Ed Slattery and Rockford Golf Hall of Famers Salley Wessels and Kay Rossmiller, who have won a combined 22 Women’s City titles.

“Everyone said no,” Murawski said. “I don’t know how many no’s he needed. I guess he was waiting for someone to say yes.”

He never got one.

“It’s not a good fit,” Rossmiller agreed. “She is better off playing with people of her own age. I go back to the Michelle Wie thing; she should stay off the men’s tour and play with the ladies. Madasyn is a great young lady, but she should be playing in junior tournaments, not in the Women’s City.

“It’s not appropriate.”

When the Pettersens first talked about playing, only 23 players had signed up for the Women’s City, only a week before the original entry deadline. A late rush of entrants has brought the Women’s City up to a healthy 64 players. That includes 13-year-old Cynthia Bounleutay, who has a low round of 75.

So, obviously, the Women’s City isn’t against kids. It’s just against young kids.

Kids who aren’t good enough. Yet.

“There have been 12- and 13-year-olds who have been in the championship flight,” Murawski said. “I can’t remember when and who, but it’s been somewhere in the past. How can you turn down someone who is shooting in the 70s and they are 12 years old?”

Murawski said much of the “conflict” has revolved around the very definition of the Women’s City.

“What constitutes a woman?” she said.

Evidently, it’s being a teenager. The RWGA plans to institute an age limit of 13 or 14 next year. That’s below the Men’s City limit of 16.

“I haven’t looked in the dictionary lately,” Murawski said, “but at 13 years of age, a girl is a woman.

“It would be one thing if she could qualify for the championship flight. But to play in the seventh or eighth flight, I can’t see the excitement in that when you are 7 years old.”

The tentative plans, then, include an exception any age limit for girls who qualify for the championship flight. An 8-year-old who can qualify in the top eight can play. One who can’t would be bounced after the qualifying round.

“That would be wonderful,” Mike Pettersen said. “Other kids would have a chance to win, too. I won’t put her in it then until she is ready to possibly win it. It’s our hometown; we’d like to have the opportunity to play it.”

Besides, they have somewhere big to play next week. An RWGA member called the Illinois Women’s Golf Association, which runs the State Junior, and suggested Madasyn for that tournament. An IWGA official then called the Pettersens while they were in San Diego at the Junior Worlds.

“It’s not a big deal,” Madasyn said of missing the Women’s City. “And I got invited to this one. That’s pretty cool.”

“It was a very friendly deal,” Mike Pettersen said. “The IWGA invited us personally. I decided right then it would be the better thing. Swallow my pride and just let it go.”

Assistant sports editor Matt Trowbridge can be reached at 815-987-1383 or mtrowbridge@rrstar.com.

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